King Louie (King L) was born Louis Johnson in 1987. He is a Chicago rapper signed to Epic Records. In 2012 King Louie was named as one of the rappers to make Chicago one of the hottest cities in the hip hop scene by Spin Magazine.

King Louie’s Childhood

King Louie’s family moved a lot during his childhood but he was raised mainly in Chicago, Illinois. King Louie started rapping while attending Hyde Park Academy as a freshman after meeting ‘Impressive’(Local Chicago Female Rapper). King has named her as one of the individuals whom swayed him into making a career out of rapping, the two usually rapped together while in school.

King Louie’s Music Career

When King Louie was done attending Hyde Park Academy, he started handing out his mixtapes at parties, bus stops, and various other locations. In September 2007 he released first mixtape titled “Boss Sh*t”, he would then go on to release another mixtape titled “Cloud 9”. His career was halted after his second release due to being hit by a car, he suffered major injuries including broken legs as well as various other grave injuries, his injuries were so severe that he had to be put on life support, and learn how to walk again. After healing from his injuries, he made a comeback on the rap scene, releasing yet another mixtape which was made available online, and he also started receiving regular air time for some of his songs including ‘Too Cool’ which was played regularly at WGCI-FM.

Apart from adding his mixtapes online, King Louie started creating musing videos on youtube. The first video to be added to youtube was a track off of his 2010 mixtape ‘Man Up, Band Up’ titled ‘I’m Arrogant. His genius marketing promotion on youtube helped him to grow a large fan base and made him into a rapper recognized not just in the Chicago area, but the whole U.S.

King Louie’s biggest sign of success would come in 2012 when he took a trip to Los Angles, California, while in LA he met with Epic Records, and ended up signing with the label. After signing with Epic Records, they decided to have him visit a dentist in order to fix his teeth which were badly crooked as a result of getting hit by a car. While in LA Kanye West did a remix with fellow Chicago Rapper Chief Keef, in it, Kanye West mentioned numerous up and coming artists, including King Louie with the line “Shout out to L-E-P, J Boogie right? Chief Keef, King Louis, this is Chi, right?” King Louie later admitted on the MTV show call ‘Sucker Free’ that he was surprise by Kanye West’s mention of his name because he wasn’t aware that Kanye West was one of his fans. In 2013, King Louie appeared on the track titled ‘Send It Up’ with Kanye West off of West’s album ‘Yeezus’.

King Louie’s Gang Association and Controversies

King Louie is rumored to be affiliated with the criminal gang known as the Gangster Disciples, and his music crew is called Man Up Band Up (MUBU). During the ‘Windy City Drift Tour’ a scuffle took place between the MUBU crew and GBE crew which includes artists such as Chief Keef, Lil Reese and Ballout. During the scuffle one of the fans managed to snatch a chain from Ballout which he Ironically robbed Soulja Boy of. After the scuffle, a man from Davenport name Cameron Oliver posted on facebook that he was in possession of Soulja’s chain “No Play Play We Here… Contact Soulja Boy Tell em We got his sh*t….” King Louie later posted on Instagram what many are considering a warning to Ballout “#ITsOnlySoLongFakeThugsCanPretend,” he also posted “Naw dis was chain ballbout took from soulja boy and a fan took it from from @balloutbayyy b*tch he betta stay out the city”

King Louie Shot In The Head

King Louie was shot In the head on December 23, 2015. According to authorities, while King Louie was sitting in a vehicle, someone approached him and shot him in the left side of his head. King Louie was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition was stabilized.